LA Kings at New York Islanders projected lineups, odds, notes

The LA Kings are back at it on Friday on Long Island after their overtime loss in New Jersey on Thursday.

Projected Lineups

LA Kings (32-19-8)

Here’s how the Kings lined up on Thursday:

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Danault – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Lizotte – Vilardi
Anderson-Dolan – Kupari – Kaliyev

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Bjornfot – Walker

Copley
Quick

*Trevor Moore won't play tonight (upper-body injury)

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) February 23, 2023

It seems reasonable to expect Alex Edler and Jonathan Quick to play on Friday. We’ll see if there’s any update on Trevor Moore or any other potential lineup changes.

New York Islanders (30-24-7)

The Islanders played earlier this week, beating the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday. Here’s how they skated on Friday morning:

#Isles at morning skate

Lee-Horvat-Martin
Parise-Nelson-Palmieri
Durandeau-Cizikas-Fasching
Johnston-Koivula-Holmstrom
(Bailey)
Pelech-Mayfield
Romanov-Pulock
Aho-Dobson
(Wotherspoon)
Sorokin
Varlamov

— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) February 24, 2023

5-on-5

Here’s how the two teams match up at 5-on-5 per Natural Stat Trick

The Islanders are a below-average hockey team with a Vezina-caliber goaltender in Ilya Sorokin.

Special Teams

Betting Odds

Let’s look at the odds, courtesy of Betstamp.

*Note: the odds below are for sports books offered in New York. Refer to available sports books specific to your state.

**Odds as of 11 am ET/8 am PT may have changed since this was published.

The LA Kings are playing on back-to-back nights and will likely have Jonathan Quick in goal. These are among the factors that see them as underdogs in this one. BetRiversI has the Kings at +108, and I like this. The Kings are a much better team than the Islanders, and despite the back-to-back, I think LA starts this one well. If you like the Islanders, BetRivers has the best price again at -123.

Ilya Sorokin does make me hesitate slightly, but I think this is a good bounce-back opportunity for the Kings against a banged-up Islanders team.

The total is either 5.5 or 6, depending on where you shop. If you like the Over, BetRivers’ -122 is your best bet. DraftKings has the Under at -115.

News & Notes

• The Islanders did not practice on Thursday, so we’ll learn more this morning, but they are dealing with several injuries. Mathew Barzal, Josh Bailey, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Cal Clutterbuck, and Oliver Wahlstrom have all been out of the lineup.
• Ilya Sorokin will be between the pipes for New York.
• Jonathan Quick has only played two games in February. The good news is he’s won them both (one of which came in relief against Anaheim). The bad news is he’s given up seven goals on 42 shots (.833 save percentage). I don’t consider it likely that the Kings will add a goaltender at the trade deadline, so they will need Quick to play better down the stretch.
• It was a rough showing for the bottom six for Los Angeles against New Jersey (per Natural Stat Trick):

  • Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	TOI	CF%	xGF%	SCF%	HDCF%
    Alex Iafallo	Blake Lizotte	Gabriel Vilardi	10.5	38.5	25.2	27.3	28.6
    Jaret Anderson-Dolan	Rasmus Kupari	Arthur Kaliyev	5.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

  • The fourth line, centered by Rasmus Kupari, didn’t register a single shot attempt at 5-on-5. They did not see much ice time in the third period. With Trevor Moore’s injury, Todd McLellan moved Kevin Fiala up to the second line. That had a pretty negative impact on the lower part of the lineup; we’ll see if anything changes for tonight.
• Anze Kopitar scored again on Thursday. He’s scored in four straight games and has seven points over that span.
• Kopitar and Adrian Kempe are scoring, but their linemate Quinton Byfield has not had the same fortune in finding the scoresheet. He has just two points in his last five games and five in his previous ten (all assists).

(Main Photo Credit: NHL.com)